The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide
by Douglas Adams

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Book Reviews of The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide

Book Review: Absurd Universe!
Summary: 5 Stars

"There is a theory which states that if anyone discovers exactly what the universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable."

"There is another which states that this has already happened."
~ Douglas Adams, "The Restaurant at the end of the Universe"

The six books in the Hitchhiker's trilogy are classics not only in sci-fi, but in comedy as well. This is British humor; so if you don't get that flavor of humor, skip this.

This franchise is wildly popular, first starting out as a BBS radio program, and then turning into books, and finally a BBS miniseries. There is something enduring about this humor, but I think the key to understand "The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy" is that the main character isn't Arthur Dent, or Ford Prefect, but rather the Galaxy itself. Adams satirizes reality itself in these books.

These books are for anyone has had to put up with the absurdities of existence. Consequently, in these books, Adams satirizes just about everything, but focuses his acid pen mainly on the politicians, philosophers and religionist since this unholy trinity is the primary gatekeeper of meaning in society.

Adams has a good eye not only for the absurd, but the wickedly fraudulent. The main driving MacGuffen of the franchise is a quest for meaning, especially finding the answer to "Life, The Universe, and Everything," and when that proves incoherent, the quest for the original question. This humor is quite serious, since, as Joseph Smith observed, "if we start right, it is easy to go right all the time; but if we start wrong, we may go wrong, and it will be a hard matter to get right."

Sadly the franchise slowly lost steam. I think Adam "jumped the shark" with "So long and Thanks for all the Fish," since he recreates the destroyed earth and introduces Fenchurch, and then abandons all of these in "Mostly Harmless." I think he had made his point in the first three books, but had an incredible franchise, so was encouraged to keep writing.

The first three books trace the quest for the answer and the question to "Life, the Universe and Everything," and they come to the conclusion that both the question and the answer are mutually exclusive (Life, the Universe, and Everything, ch.34), which really settles the question and settles the quest. But for whatever reason, Adams kept on writing-probably as the insistence of the editors Adams so acidly satirizes in "Mostly Harmless."

These books originally were a radio series, so the first two books are adaptations of the radio, so they are quick reads, but since you'll laugh your head off, it will take a little bit longer. "Life, the Universe and Everything" is Adams first novel, so it has a different feel. CAUTION: If you don't understand the British sport cricket, just plow ahead-it isn't really that relevant to the story.

"So long and Thanks for all the Fish" is the shark-jump. It was billed as book four of a trilogy, but the slick marketing didn't help the book out. I think the problem was recreating the earth, which had been killed off. Didn't Dallas do that? "It's just a dream!" The center of gravity of the franchise shifted from Arthur and the others being lost in the cosmos, but a relationship between Arthur and Fenchurch, with the Rain God doing precious little. This story is an aberration, and anomaly. Adam's recognized it, and dropped the thread in "Mostly Harmless." Don't let this deter you: even Shakespeare wrote bad plays.

"Yong Zaphod" isn't a story really, but more of a fragment. I wish that there were some explination about what it was, and where it was supposed to go.

"Mostly Harmless" is a very dark and gritty story, and reminds me of Mark Twain's later works such as "Connecticut Yankee." It is always a sad thing to a comedian go sour and bitter. We actually see the logical out workings of an absurd universe. The fun soon fades, and absurdity brings despair. Adventure, excitement, and really wild things will eventually bore.

Three symbols in the story reflect this. First, the electronic "Hitchhiker's Guide" stops working. A Freudian slip, or a projection of Adams subconscious into the story? I think the franchise and the fans got out of control. The second symbol is the name of Arthur's and Trillian's quasi-daughter (Arthur donated to a sperm bank)-Random. She is a symbol of the mainspring of the universe, but she is lost in the cosmos, as we all are. The third symbol is "Random's Watch," which should be the title of the story. Random does a reverse Paley's Watch argument inferring meaning from the watch. (Ch. 15) The watch is useless on planet Lamuella, with a different orbit, but the watch works perfectly on earth, where it was designed. We are designed to function somewhere, and the trick is to find out where we are suited.

I recommend this series, even though it slowly looses steam, it has its very high moments!

Summary of The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide

This omnibus edition begins with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, in which Arthur Dent is introduced to the galaxy at large when he is rescued by an alien friend seconds before Earth's destruction. Then in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Arthur and his new friends travel to the end of time and discover the true reason for Earth's existence. In Life, the Universe, and Everything, the gang goes on a mission to save the entire universe. So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish recounts how Arthur finds true love and "God's Final Message to His Creation." Finally, Mostly Harmless is the story of Arthur's continuing search for home, in which he instead encounters his estranged daughter, who is on her own quest. There's also a bonus short story, "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe," more of a vignette than a full story, which wraps up this completist's package of the Don't Panic chronicles. As the series progresses, its wackier elements diminish, but the satire of human life and foibles is ever present. --Brooks Peck

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